Embodiments of the invention relate generally to product identification and authorization systems and, more particularly, to a system and method for obtaining an authorization key to use a product.
In a conventional product identification and authorization system, a product is identified by a serial number and an authorization key to use the product is obtained from a product manufacturer using the serial number of the product. However, serial numbers of the same category of products are usually similar. For example, serial numbers of the same category of products may be sequential numbers. Thus, an imposter may be able to use a serial number of one product to guess the serial numbers of other products in the same category and to obtain authorization keys to use the products from the product manufacturer, which potentially prevents the real owners of the products from getting the authorization keys to use the products. Therefore, there is a need to ensure authenticity when a serial number of a product is used to obtain an authorization key to use the product from a product manufacturer.
Throughout the description, similar reference numbers may be used to identify similar elements.